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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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There were zero digital health IPOs So far in 2023, and as the drought continues, the main focus of many startups is now maintaining liquidity, says Chris LloydManaging Director for Healthcare and Life Sciences JPMorgan Chase and Co. Speaking on Digital Health New York Summit Last week, Lloyd described the survival guide for pre-profit businesses as “reducing cash burn, cutting fat and focusing on the areas where growth can be achieved.”
It also means a reckoning when it comes to reviews. For this reason, some companies are looking for bridging financing “unlabeled” elevations, where they don’t have to get a haircut. Others may have to exit at a lower valuation. So far this year there have been an average of 12 acquisitions per month. When describing the M&A market As for musical chairs, Lloyd notes, “There are simply not enough chairs for everyone.” The more attractive acquisitions will be those assets that are nearing breakeven.
He says he expects to continue to see a lot of debt on the balance sheet Venture debt has gone from niche to mainstream. And say goodbye to the heyday of consumer healthcare as investors shift from the direct-to-consumer and toward the employer market. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, says Lloyd: “One of the truisms is that in good markets and bad, companies are always able to obtain funding and are able to achieve successful outcomes.”
This surprising obsession drives Vivek Ramaswamy and his presidential campaign
Vivek Ramaswamy
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
Vivek Ramaswamy’s fixation on maximizing his own ROI made him a billionaire at 38 thanks to his healthcare holding company Roivant. Today it fuels his meteoric rise as Trump 2.0. Win or lose in 2024, the biotech tycoon will emerge richer and more influential than ever – just as he planned.
Read more here.
Pipeline and deal updates
Ambient AI: Augmedix announced on Wednesday the early access release of its fully automated ambient documentation software called Augmedix Go. Microsoft’s Nuance Communications announced the general availability of its competing ambient AI medical scribe software, Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot, on the same day. About half of doctors in the U.S. already use Nuance’s Dragon dictation software, giving the company a strong position in the market, but handing over control of note-taking to machines will be a harder sell, as Katie reported earlier this year. Augmedix, which went public in 2021, has a partnership with HCA Healthcare, one of the largest health systems in the country.
Mental health: Cartwheel, a startup that works with schools to provide virtual mental health services to children and teens, has raised a $20 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures. The company works with 50 school systems in five states, including Massachusetts and New York.
Women’s health: Evvy, a startup offering an at-home vaginal microbiome test, has raised a $14 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital and is expanding into offering STI and antibiotic resistance testing.
Cash payment: Retail giant Costco is partnering with healthcare marketplace startup Sesame to offer its members virtual primary care visits for $29 and mental health visits for $79. Sesame does not accept health insurance – virtual and in-person providers on its platform charge cash-based rates.
Acquisition: Healthcare software and analytics startup Tendo is acquiring MDsave, a healthcare services marketplace. Tendo raised $70 million and the deal is valued at $150 million. The company declined to comment on how it is financing the acquisition.
Rewording: Roivant subsidiary Immunovant announced positive Phase 1 data for IMVT-1402, an antibody for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The drug is a reformulation of IMVT-1401, which had experienced problems in patients that led to a voluntary pause in clinical trials.
Kidney disease: The FDA has approved empagliflozin, marketed by Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim under the name Jardiance, for the treatment of adults with chronic kidney disease.
Discovery of T cell receptors: Jura Bio, which is developing a T-cell receptor discovery platform to identify potential therapeutics, said it has raised $16.1 million in funding and also announced a development partnership with the cell therapy company Syena.
New drug combination shows promising results against early stages of colon cancer
Pathologist Erika Hissong (left) and oncologist Pashtoon Kasi (right) were two of the scientists involved in a new study demonstrating the effectiveness of a new immunotherapy against colorectal cancer.
WEILL-CORNELL MEDICINE
Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States – over 150,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year and over 52,000 Americans will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. A combination immunotherapy given before surgery, developed by biotech company Agenus, destroyed over 80% of a tumor before it was removed in a small study.
Read more here.
More healthcare news
Hundreds is laying off 2,000 employees, about 3% of the health insurer’s workforce, to cut costs.
Elevance Health delays $2.5 billion purchase Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana.
Liquid amoxicillina popular antibiotic prescribed to children is still in short supply.
HHS said last week that nearly 500,000 children and families were wrongfully deregistered Medicaid due to a “system issue” and their coverage will be reinstated, but the timing is unclear.
A new study points to Pfizer’s Covid drug Paxlovid is less effective than in previous studies, but still significantly reduces the risk of death.
Researchers have developed an algorithm to help predict whether someone will get long Covidaccording to an article published in Nature.
A CDC Panel recommended Pfizer’s new RSV vaccine for pregnant women that protects infants against the virus.
Across Forbes
Exclusive: Mark Zuckerberg on Meta’s two big risky bets – and punches in the face
How TikTok revealed the closest personal contacts of celebrities and politicians
How workforce cuts are undermining Petco’s strategy to drive store visits instead of online
What else we read
How many microbes does it take to get sick? (quantum)
The Ozempic Revolution has its roots in the work of Svetlana Mojsov, yet it has been pushed out of history (STAT)
California workers cutting countertops die of terminal illness (Los Angeles Times)
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